Semiconductors for wireless communication applications operate at radio frequencies ("RF") and above. As the applications for wireless communication increase, so does the desirability of making use of many frequency bands in the available spectrum. The millimeter wave spectrum is available and desirable for wireless communication purposes. The millimeter spectrum, however, presents certain engineering challenges due to the increased distortion and loss at millimeter wave frequencies. There is also a greater sensitivity to device parasitics at higher frequencies than radio frequencies ("RF") which are commonly used in wireless communications. Accordingly, the typical parasitics that are tolerated at lower frequencies cannot be ignored at millimeter wave frequencies and still achieve adequate performance for the applications in which they occur.
One of the typical parasitics of all wireless communication systems that include high frequency semiconductors is the complex impedance, primarily inductance, of the bond wire. The bond wire is typically a length of gold wire or ribbon that is connected using ultrasonic energy to a semiconductor device or a MMIC chip contact on one end and an interconnecting contact on an opposite end. The interconnecting contact is typically a conductive pad on a substrate such as a chip on board printed circuit substrate onto which the semiconductor die or MMIC chip is directly attached. With this connection style, there is conventionally a length of wire that has a significant inductive component at millimeter wave frequencies. Conventionally, serial discrete capacitors are used to tune the inductance of the bond wire to a resonant condition. Discrete capacitors, however, are large and take up too much substrate, which is in contravention of the interest in miniaturization. In addition, the normal discrete capacitor tolerances and inherent parasitics render accurate tuning at millimeter wave frequencies impractical from a manufacturing view point. Production errors in certain types of appropriate capacitors can also reduce the total yield of the circuit making the manufacturing process costly. There remains a need, therefore, for a manufacturable and small apparatus for compensating typical bond wire parasitics at millimeter wave frequencies.